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Outlawed by Amazon DRM

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Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#71

Post by rmc »

hobbes wrote: post #50
shismijuh wrote: post #16

I own 2 kindles. Got one more for Mum also. I need to get my books out ASAP. Somehow, feel very cheated. Nobody can walk into your house and take away your paperbook. This is theft! And then the arrogance of no explanations.

You did read the Terms and Conditions before you "bought" the books, didn't you? If you bought the books, you agreed [in the eyes of the law] to this kind of eventuality.. I'm as guilty of this kind of thing as well. We tend to assume an imaginary T&C that conforms to we think is fair when we buy things online - and we have to learn the hard way that the real T&C's are very much more dubious. Here's the relevant bit…

Laws trump contracts. You cannot sign away what the law says happened. It's just a matter of convincing a judge that you bought the book. They Amazon's T&Cs are irrelevant.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#72

Post by rmc »

scotty79 wrote: post #27

I have a Kindle but I don't want to have to do with Amazon. What is the best open firmware so far I can flash into it? I'd like to retain ability to send documents from my computer to my Kindle over the internet.

I have a Kindle and never read nor use any DRM books. You don't need to use Amazon's software or service or anything. You can convert files into .mobi format using open source tools and use a programme like Calibre or just put the files in the "documents" folder of the Kindle to load them.

Using a Kindle without DRM is very possible.

If you turn off wireless, then it will never try to do any software updating.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#73

Post by phireal »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #64

Its getting to the point where I am seriously considering closing my Amazon account. I just don't like the way it does business any more. Can anyone recommend a good online bookseller in the UK? Is Waterstones any good? The Guardian is running a story [1] today about how Amazon forces publishers to cover the cost of 20% VAT (sales tax) on ebook sales, even though it only pays 3% to the Luxembourg government (where it…

Waterstones used to use Amazon to sell books (presumably they couldn't make any money any other way). Not sure if they still do.

http://www.abebooks.co.uk/ is pretty good, particularly for difficult to find and second hand books. I've found more and more recently that play.com does almost as well as (and often better than) Amazon in terms of price, although I don't know much about their business tactics.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#74

Post by rmc »

ghshephard wrote: post #8
capisce wrote: post #2

That's very frightening, makes me reconsider buying more e-books from Amazon...

It's important to note that you don't actually buy e-books from Amazon, you license the right to read, and when that license is revoked/cancelled, those books are no longer available to you.

Well that depends. If a court decides that you own files you purchase online like this, then you own it.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#76

Post by homeomorphic »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #64

Its getting to the point where I am seriously considering closing my Amazon account. I just don't like the way it does business any more. Can anyone recommend a good online bookseller in the UK? Is Waterstones any good? The Guardian is running a story [1] today about how Amazon forces publishers to cover the cost of 20% VAT (sales tax) on ebook sales, even though it only pays 3% to the Luxembourg government (where it…

I find The Book Depository good, but I don't really know if they're good or evil. They're very pleasant doing business with, though.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#77

Post by mysterywhiteboy »

rmc wrote: post #66
mysterywhiteboy wrote: post #26

The lack of transparency from Amazon here is worrying. Because it appears to be Amazon UK dealing with the account holder I'd be interested to know if she would get anywhere by submitting a Subject Information Request [1]. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 an individual can submit a request for personal information held by an organization and they must comply within 40 days. Whether she would get the information she…

Yes I was also thinking of the Data Protection Acts here aswell. Whether she would get the information she is interested in, i.e. which account she is linked to, is another question. Well if they don't provide it, they are breaking the law, so you can complain about them again that way.

Unfortunately there are a number of circumstances where they are within their rights to withhold information. One of these situations is where the information relates to another individual.

If information is withheld she my be able to infer that the offending account to which she is linked is held by someone else - though the identity of the account holder would understandably not be given.

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#78

Post by bruceboughton »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #64

Its getting to the point where I am seriously considering closing my Amazon account. I just don't like the way it does business any more. Can anyone recommend a good online bookseller in the UK? Is Waterstones any good? The Guardian is running a story [1] today about how Amazon forces publishers to cover the cost of 20% VAT (sales tax) on ebook sales, even though it only pays 3% to the Luxembourg government (where it…

Every week there is a story in the UK press about how company A is not paying tax in the UK. This is not unique to Amazon.

Vodafone, Amazon, Starbucks, Google, Apple, ...

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#79

Post by curiousdannii »

lancewiggs wrote: post #3

I wonder whether this is related to Linn living in Norway, purchasing from Amazon.com and somehow Amazon.co.uk are getting in the middle, perhaps because they run Europe from there. It's the game that many people play - trying to find the best Amazon (or Apple) store when they live and travel between countries. This means a constant struggle to find a combination of credit card, store with enough content (The US is b…

And it's more complicated than just which store you use. I'm an Australian and I have to use the amazon.com store. But even though I use that store, I can't buy "active content"/applications, which AFAIK is limited to US customers only.

At least there's the book depository for paper books!

Re: Outlawed by Amazon DRM

#80

Post by brazzy »

rmc wrote: post #67
AngryParsley wrote: post #12

First, it's important to note that we don't have very much information yet. Given what I've read so far, I assume stupidity on the part of Amazon. Before everyone starts hating on Amazon specifically, remember that this same thing would happen with Apple, Xbox Live, or Barnes & Noble accounts. It's not that all these companies want to have DRM. It's the content owners who dictate the terms of licensing.

I assume stupidity on the part of Amazon. Oh I'm almost certain that this is stupidity, and not malice. (Why would amazon shut down an account of some regular person?) However, the big problem is that "all the books you own" should be dependent on a massive company never acting stupid. The problem isn't stupidity/malice, the problem is that stupidity can have such a massive massive effect.

Well, the same thing could happen with physical books and a moving company acting stupid - may even be more likely. The difference is that you can sue them for damages in that case
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